Thomas Daniel Calnan (16 December 1915 – 13 September 1981) was an English pilot and
prisoner-of-war
A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610.
Belligerents hold prisoners of w ...
of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, who wrote a memoir of his time in German captivity entitled ''Free As A Running Fox''.
Calnan was commissioned in the RAF on 19 December 1936.
[The Royal Air Force Retired List (1976)]
Calnan was shot down while flying a
Spitfire
The Supermarine Spitfire is a British single-seat fighter aircraft used by the Royal Air Force and other Allied countries before, during, and after World War II. Many variants of the Spitfire were built, from the Mk 1 to the Rolls-Royce Griff ...
on a photo-reconnaissance mission over France in December 1941. He gives some brief background about himself and his flying career with the RAF's
No. 1 Photographic Reconnaissance Unit, but devotes most of the book to his escape attempts while a prisoner of the Germans. He was incarcerated at
Stalag Luft III
, partof = ''Luftwaffe''
, location = Sagan, Lower Silesia, Nazi Germany (now Żagań, Poland)
, image =
, caption = Model of the set used to film the movie ''The Great Escape.'' It depicts a smaller version of a single compound in ''Stalag ...
during the period of the "Great Escape."
He was promoted to the rank of Wing Commander on 1 January 1949, and retired on 14 February 1959.
Calnan latterly lived in
Zinal
Zinal is a village in Switzerland, located in the municipality of Anniviers in the canton of Valais. It lies at an elevation of above sea level in the Swiss Alps in the ''Val de Zinal'', a valley running from the Zinal Glacier, north of Dent Blan ...
,
Switzerland
). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...
, where he died in September 1981 at the age of 65.
Ancestry: Thomas Daniel Calnan in the England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1995
/ref>
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Calnan, Thomas D.
1915 births
1981 deaths
Royal Air Force wing commanders
Shot-down aviators
British World War II prisoners of war